In a knowledge economy, plagiarism is just a matter of degree

When students are the paying client, universities are reluctant to wield a big stick.

By Anya Daly

24 August 2012 — 3:00am

I WAS down to the last five essays, each one taking more time to assess than the paid-for rate. I took up the next essay. Immediately it struck me as being much more sophisticated than any of the previous offerings, which had, for the most part regurgitated more or less accurately the information presented in lectures or readings.

I found myself ticking enthusiastically - at last here was a student who had taken the opportunity to think deeply about issues and develop a persuasive line of argument. I tried to recall the student but could only vaguely remember hesitant contributions to discussions.

'I have been subjected to verbal abuse, threats, spitting and blackmail.'

And then I remembered the first class (standard for all my classes) when we carefully worked our way through the handout and exercise on Strategies to Avoid Plagiarism.

With great reluctance I listened to the voice in my head which said: google-check a few sentences because without ''Damocles'' (Monash's anti-plagiarism detection software) in place, it is open season for plagiarism.

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An hour later, I had identified 60 per cent of the essay as a ''cut-and-paste'' job. My co-ordinator told me to speak to the student to see if there was an explanation and get the student to resubmit. When confronted, the student protested: ''But I wrote a lot in my own words''. I later checked the rest of the essay - in fact 95 per cent was entirely ''cut-and-paste''. I allowed the student to resubmit, but on my insistence, on a new topic less easily plagiarised. The essay failed, but interestingly, this student still passed the course. I wonder were the co-ordinators in the other courses informed of this student's transgression?

This is not an uncommon story and I know this or a similar scenario could be recounted by many lecturers and tutors in any university.

It is, however, worth noting that plagiarism is especially of concern in business/economics departments which attract a greater proportion of international students. To be very clear - this is not to say that it is only international students who plagiarise. Local students do it, too.

What is deeply concerning is not just the student's lack of remorse or admission of guilt, but that this kind of transgression is tacitly tolerated by those in a position to curtail or eliminate such abuses. The most minimal measure would be to have a working, comprehensive plagiarism detection system in place across the board, across all subjects that require written assessments of any kind. However, in these days when the bottom line of short-term profit is paramount, the priority is to attract and retain high-fee-paying students.

Unsurprisingly, this has put an enormous burden on those on the ''factory floor'' of education - the tutors, the teaching associates. They can either collude in the lack of rigor or they can expend demoralising hours checking and rechecking essays - doubling, tripling the time necessary so that the assessment has some measure of integrity. It is a tragic irony that management depends on the good will, knowledge and enthusiasm of these teachers, most often on casual contracts, for the courses to run successfully.

But they show little regard for the toll these lapses in responsibility have on them. This is nothing less than predatory employment.

Identifying plagiarism is distasteful and even dangerous. I and others have been subjected to verbal abuse, threats, intimidation, spitting and blackmail.

The students know that in the ''knowledge economy'' the ''providers'' must keep the ''clientele'' happy and so some of them have no qualms about reminding the teachers that their displeasure with bad grades will be reflected in the teaching evaluations. Evaluations are used to assess the effectiveness of teaching. As The Age reported this week, there is an underground market in ''ghost-writing'' and recycling assignments from earlier years. Furthermore, I am aware of a case where references written for a student in good faith were rewritten with higher grades by agents and the teachers' signatures forged. The relevant university is investigating this.

Students who gain entry without adequate language levels despite having passed the entry hurdles, sit passively in class, often without having done the reading preparation, and are basically parasites on the work of those other students who have done the work.

What constitutes plagiarism has widened considerably. Once, it simply meant copying word-for-word without citation and quotations marks. If students ''made the knowledge their own'' - demonstrated by effective paraphrasing, incorporating various sources with their own responsive thinking - this was deemed acceptable.

Now, according to some definitions, this is no longer acceptable. One factor that remains important is the question of intent. So at one end of the spectrum there is blatant, intentional plagiarism, through to sloppy scholarship, through to inadvertent plagiarism at the other end.

Universities generally take a sensible approach to these differences by penalising those instances of blatant plagiarism, educating the student in the case of sloppy scholarship and inadvertent plagiarism.

Clearly the best solution is to pre-empt any of these unfortunate eventualities by more rigorous gatekeeping standards, by the base-line use of effective and efficient anti-plagiarism detection software, by educating students and by giving teachers, tutors and co-ordinators adequate training and support - certainly not by making them feel like pariahs if they have the dedication and courage to confront these corruptions.

I propose that a white paper investigation into the full effects of the corporatisation of our universities beyond the fixation on accounting and profitability, should be a priority.

Anya Daly is a researcher at Melbourne University, examining, among other topics, corruptions in the knowledge economy. She has taught at universities in Australia and Europe.